Air-conditioning apparatus and the like



Dec. 25, 1951 ca. 5. DAUPHINEE AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS AND THE LIKE Filed May 28, 1949 5 INVENTOR.

. GEORGE S, DAUPHINEI;

ATTOQN E54 Patented Dec. 25, 1951 as'zaur AIR-CONDITIONING APPARATUS AND THE LIKE" George-S.;Dauphinee, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to ;B Connor- Engineering Corp., New: York;- N.v Y., a. .corppi a tion. of N ew York.

Application-Mayfl28; 1949; Serial No. 95327-- This'dnvention: relates. to. improvements-innit conditioning apparatuszand the:. like-and isacone-v earned more especially with adevice for'estimate ing-rthe, useful life of. granular adsorbents used in.

air purification. The device or the present; invention is particularly adapted foruseinconjunction with the-air recoveryapparatus disclosed in my co-pendingapplication Serial No. 690,551, filed:

August. 1-4; 1946*,2of which rlatter..-application the present application constitutes acontinuation-in-z part;

A primary. objectof thepresent invention isthe. provision of means for determining, the; useful; life-oi an air purifying deyicein-orderto ascertainv when it: will become necessary to renew. the.- adv sorbent1material:retaineditherein; such;asaacti vated acarbon- .or the. like. The; usefulserviceglifer of activated-rcarbon;- in. air I purification, devices; depends upon-the amount:- of:v adsorbabla gaseousv impurities ;.centained.xinrthe;--air :to-b.e;.treated-.aandz also-upon the specific; properties; oifs'thaimpvuri-tie The'continual variation :inthese factors; result variationin theusefulliie-ofztheaadsorbent-in: a

air purification device.

Itris; conceivable;v that algae detector :means. pla-cediinwthe. air;-streanrleavinepthe purification" unit'would indicate; the usefulliie. ofztheraa sorbent;

material orthatthe useful life ofr'the adsorbent material might be predicted by an analysis of;

the. air before passing; through; the unit. How;- ever. as .a-.practical matter, it must be realizedthat: gaseou impurities .will :produce a noticeably; ob-

jectionableodor; when present in the, air; even in:

'7 Claims. (Cl. 183 -43) the-. carbon. would-be; twelve months; t is asasumed that, for any particular installation, a the. average: concentration of*- the gaseouszimpuritiesa will .belapprox-imately constant iorxeachtmonthly;

period.

Aceordinglyi it; is an object of the" invention to provide-a sampling or test element which may: be

readilysecur edito andfremoved from an'air purifi'-.

cation: device-in order to indicatethe; degree of exhaustion of the adsorbent materialeandtoipredict the useful,v life, period of I the; purification:

device.

Other objects and advantages of: the invention: willbe readily apparent inthe course ofl-theiole 1 lowing; I detailed description taken in v connection with the accompanying drawing ;which-illustrates a; preferred embodiment: of the; invention 1 and wherein;

Fig. 1 1 is a. perspective View; of an air-purifying;

- device constructed substantially in accomlan ce;v with application Serial No.1 69 0,55 l; and havinga. pair of removable sampling or test elements; in;

Place I Rig. 2 .v is.,a sectionalview; taken.- on line.2I-.-2 of;

Fig, 3, i afragmentary sectionaldetail illustratingQthe manner of removably associating the testelementswith the air purification device; and

Fig 4,, is. a perspective view of. aremoved. test element havingitfs perforatedtwalls. partlyubrokenaway to illustrate thead'sorbentcarbon fil ing;

there a the n mbers. w ich se ve to. e-f

curethe test element to the ail-purification device,

extremely lowconcentrationsand thatthese ime v puritieswcomprise a variety of gases. Accordingly a;practical procedure forpredicting: the useful life of an adsorbent such as, activated carbon, is'rto' draw off?- a sam-ple, ofthe; adsorbent after iti hasbeeningservice for some time; for example; about one-halt the contemplatednseful life period. A. laboratorytest-will then indicate the. amountofi; thegaseous impurities retainedv by the carbon over; thispflr-iodbyzalsimple.weightdetermination.

Fabricators-,-o f, air purifying devices; havezacr' cumulated considerable,- data onthe :useful, life;

period of-activated carbon. in air purifying? 'servicel This is expressed in terms. of. weight percentage. of retained gaseous impurities. The average value: isj-approxi-mately 20-%.of the carbon weight;

andapplies to ordinary service as, for example, in

the; purification of recirculated air-"for air condietioningwwith, carbon .bedv thicknesses of inch;

If a. sampleiof carbon is tal en after having-been i in .serviceior six months: and:shows 10 of gases ifetainedpthens. thegpredictedi total useful, life: of

Referring-mow to .1 th'ej 'drawings in greater de} 3 tail; theair purificationdevice comprises a cell. generally designated by reference number 1.0; The" capacity of; the cell should be at least 250; 1

cubic feetperminute of air' per square footface area and the resistance to this rateof flow should not be more than 0:.2'- Water. gauge. Cell. I 0 preferably consists of a pair of spaced substantially parallel perforated sheets of metal or other shapesustaining material H and} I i." which are bent; in zig-zag or ac-cordian pleated: fashion to form'fa" plurality (it-alternately reversed V'-shaped ele ments whichextend between" the flan'g ed top member [3'- andfth'e flanged-bottom member- [4% and the flanged side members i5 and 46.

Thus thecel l (B -presents a large porous perforated area providing- 'a plurality of pockets A:

The'entire volume of the recirculatedair-needznot be pass'ed through;the' porous; invention, in acjcordance with the objects ofthe invention my aforementioned cp-pending application description of preferred details of construction with respect to the cell or air purification device proper. In my aforementioned application the V-shaped cells are formed with slots (not shown in the present drawings) extending substantially horizontally across the front face of the device. These slots arepreferably located at the bent or bight of the V-cells and are formed by extensions lid and l2a of the sheets H and I2 respectively. The extensions Ila and l2a define together with the sheets H and I2 transversely extending supports generally designated 25 which serve to retain the removable test elements 26 as will now be described.

As best shown in Fig. 4 test element 26 comprises a container having perforated front and rear walls 21 and 28 and being preferably, but not necessarily, of rectangular cross-section. Test element 26 is provided with end closure members 29 which may be secured in position in any desired manner. Means are provided on test element 26 for removably securing said element to the air purifying device ill or any similar air purification unit. In the preferred embodiment of the invention this securing means takes the convenient form of upper and lower clip members 30 formed integrally with each closure member 29. By reason of the described arrangement the test elements 26 may be removably secured to the air recovery device It! by engagement of the clip members 30 with the transversely extending supports 25 of an adjacent pair of V- cells. The sampling elements 26 are filled with the same adsorbent as the cell [0, such as activated carbon and the completely assembled unit provides an air permeable body.

It will be observed that the sampling elements 26 blocks the passage of air to a certain extent to that portion of the cell member directly behind it, thus establishing a differential air" pressure across the sampling element suflicient to promote airflow therethrough. It will be further noted that air can flow around the ends of the sampling element 26 to reach the area of the cell member directly behind it.

The resistance of a cell l which is 24" x 24" x 7%" at its normal capacity of 1000 cubic feet per minute is 0.105" W. G. and, after the addition of the two sampling elements 26, each of which is for example 12" x 2" x is only 0.112" W. G. This slight increase in resistance, may be ignored for all practical purposes. Moreover it is only rarely that an installation will consist of one cell only. When a multiplicity of cells is used, it is necessary to use a sampling element on one cell only. For example, when four cells are used, the increase in resistance would only be The air velocity rate through the sampling element 26 may be about 50% of that through the cell I0. If the thickness of the carbon wall for the sampling element and for the cell members were the same, then the percentage of retained impurities in the case of the cell carbon would be twice as great as that in the case of the sampling element carbon and the ratio of 2 to 1 would remain constant throughout the service life. The combination of standard .cell and standard sampling elements must be carefully tested to maintain this ratio. A

l The follow n examplewill illustrate the use;

of the sampling elements for predicting the useful life'period of air purification devices:

Predicted life or 12 months It will be understood that this disclosure is given by way of example and not by way of limitation. 'On the other hand, the invention lends itself to avariety of expressions within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a device for adsorbing adulterants having a plurality of connected airpermeable units containing adsorbing material.

a removable sampling element containing adsorb ing material and having apertures permitting access of air to said material and means for removably associating said sampling element with said units, whereby to allow removal and testin of said element for predicting the useful life of the adsorbing material in said units.

2. In combination with a device for adsorbing adulterants a removable sampling element therefor, said device comprising a casing having an intake side and an outlet side, a plurality of air permeable units containing adsorbing material extending between the inlet side and the outlet side of said casing, said units having adsorbent wall members converging toward the intake side of said casing, said units having spaced supporting members disposed thereon, said sampling element being self-contained and adapted to retain adsorbing material therein, means permitting access of air to the adsorbing material in the sampling element and means secured to said sampling element and cooperating with said supporting members for removably associating said sampling element with the device, thereby to allow removal and testing of said element for predicting the useful life of the adsorbing material in said units.

3. In combination with a device for adsorbing adulterants having a plurality of air-permeable units containing adsorbing material, a removable sampling element constaining adsorbing material accessible to air, a plurality of said units having projecting portions extending outwardly therefrom, and securing means carried by said sampling element for removable association with'said projecting portions of at least two units, whereby to allow removal and testing of said element for predicting the useful life of the adsorbing material in said units.

4. In combination with a device for adsorbing adulterants, a removable sampling element therefor, said device comprising a casing having an intake. side and an outlet side, a plurality of air-permeable units containing adsorbing material extending between the inlet side and the outlet side of said casing, said units having adsorbent wall members converging toward the intake side of said casing, said units having spaced supporting members disposed therein, said sampling element being self-contained and adapted to retain adsorbing material therein and accessible to air and clip members carried .by said sampling element and cooperating with said supporting members for removably associating said sampling element with the device,

whereby to allow removal and testing of said element for predicting the useful life of the adsorbing material in said units.

5. A device of the character described comprising a casing open at two sides, an air-permeable unit containing adsorbing material in said casing and exposed'through the open sides of the same, said unit being of undulated form, a removable sampling device in the form of an apertured container holding adsorbent material, sjaid container being located between a plurality of the undulations in the unit and means for detachably securing said container at the apices of said undulations.

6. A device of the character described in claim 5, wherein the apex of each undulation in the unit is provided with a projecting strip, and the means for detachably securing the container consists in clips removably fitting over at least two of said strips.

7. A device of the character described comprising a support for a relatively large air-permeable unit containing adsorbing material for disposition in the path of an air stream, a device for determining the useful life expectancy 01 the adsorbing materialjglgontained in said unit, said device consisting of an apertured container holding adsorbent material substantially simi lar to that contained in the unit, and being much smaller in size than the unit, and means for attaching the filled coxitainer at a point on the unit where a true sample of the air stream passing through the unit will also reach the adsorbent contents of the container.

GEORGE s. DAUPHINEE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the tile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,425,790 Moyer Aug. 15, 1922 1,655,248 Sharp Jan. 3, 1928 2,388,134 Flosdorf eta1 Oct. 30. 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Countrli Date 257,879 Great Britain Jan. 24. 1927 

